Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess: A Fairy Tale About Pride and Self-Knowledge

Long before Prince Hyacinth discovered the truth about himself, an enchantment had already decided the course of his life. It began with a king who loved a princess so deeply that he was determined to find a way to marry her, despite the spell that prevented her from accepting any suitor.

Desperate for help, the king sought out a fairy and asked what he must do to win the princess’s hand.

Her answer was most unusual.

The princess had a beloved cat, she explained, and the man destined to marry her would be the one clever enough to step on its tail.

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The king considered this a simple challenge. He was so determined to succeed that he promised himself he would crush the troublesome tail beneath his foot if that was what it took.

But the cat proved far cleverer than expected.

Whenever the king approached, it seemed to sense his intentions. It would turn, spring away, or move its tail at the last possible moment. For eight days, the king tried every trick he could think of, but the elusive creature always escaped him.

Then, at last, fortune favoured him. He found the cat fast asleep, its tail stretched conveniently across the floor. Without hesitation, he planted his foot firmly upon it.

The cat let out a terrible scream and leapt into the air. Before the astonished king could recover from the shock, the animal transformed into a tall, furious man.

It was an enchanter, and he had been waiting for someone to break his spell.

“You shall marry the princess,” he declared, “but I shall have my revenge. You will have a son who will never be happy until he discovers that his nose is too long. And if you reveal what I have told you, you will vanish from the world, never to be seen or heard from again.”

The king was frightened, but the threat about his future son’s nose struck him as ridiculous. Surely a boy would notice something so obvious about his own face?

The enchanter disappeared before the king could ask another question.

Free of the enchantment that had prevented her marriage, the princess accepted the king’s proposal. The two married, but their happiness was tragically brief. Before long, the king died, leaving his wife to raise their only child.

The boy was named Hyacinth.

He had beautiful blue eyes and a charming little mouth, but his nose was extraordinarily large, covering nearly half his face. When the queen first saw him, she was heartbroken. Her ladies, however, quickly found a way to comfort her.

“Your Majesty, there is no reason to grieve,” they assured her. “It is a noble Roman nose. Look through the histories, and you will discover that great heroes have magnificent noses just like his.”

The queen adored her son and desperately wanted to believe them. Soon, she began to see his unusual feature as a mark of distinction rather than a cause for concern.

And so, without realising it, she began a deception that would shape the prince’s entire life.

As Hyacinth grew, everyone around him carefully controlled what he heard. People with small noses were described as ridiculous, ugly, or unworthy of admiration. Anyone who wished to approach the prince had to possess a nose that resembled his own.

The courtiers were especially eager to please the queen. Some even began pulling their babies’ noses in the hope that they might grow longer. Their efforts achieved little, for no one could compete with the prince’s extraordinary proportions.

His education reinforced the same belief. Whenever his teachers spoke of a celebrated ruler or a beautiful princess, they made certain to mention the person’s supposedly impressive nose. The walls of his chambers were decorated with portraits of long-nosed figures, and every lesson seemed to confirm the same conclusion.

By the time Hyacinth reached adulthood, he had become completely convinced that his nose was one of his finest qualities.

He would never have agreed to shorten it by even an inch.

The Princess with the Tiny Nose

When Prince Hyacinth celebrated his twentieth birthday, the queen decided that the time had come for him to marry. She ordered portraits of eligible princesses to be brought before him, hoping he would find a suitable bride.

Among them was the portrait of a young woman known simply as the Dear Little Princess.

She was the daughter of a powerful king and would one day inherit several kingdoms. Yet Hyacinth scarcely considered her royal connections or future wealth. The moment he saw her picture, he was captivated by her beauty.

There was just one feature that troubled his courtiers: her nose was delightfully small.

Years of flattering the prince had taught them to regard small noses as objects of ridicule. Some could barely stop themselves from laughing when they saw her portrait. But Hyacinth, who had never learned to question his own standards of beauty, could not understand their amusement.

When two courtiers dared to speak disrespectfully about the princess’s nose, he banished them from his court.

The remaining courtiers quickly understood that they needed a different approach. One of them eventually offered an explanation that pleased the prince.

“Your Highness is right that a man’s worth may be measured by his noble nose,” he suggested. “But a woman’s beauty follows different rules. I have heard that Cleopatra herself had a small, upturned nose.”

The argument was precisely what Hyacinth wanted to hear. Delighted by this supposed discovery, he rewarded the courtier generously and sent ambassadors to ask for the Dear Little Princess’s hand in marriage.

Her father agreed.

Unable to contain his excitement, Hyacinth rode three leagues to meet his bride-to-be. He was about to greet her and kiss her hand when the enchanter suddenly appeared.

Before anyone could intervene, the sinister figure seized the princess and whisked her away. In an instant, she had vanished.

Hyacinth was devastated. He refused to return home without finding her and insisted that his courtiers remain behind. Mounting his horse, he rode away alone, allowing the animal to choose its own path.

For an entire day, he crossed a vast, empty plain without finding a house or settlement. Hunger tormented both him and his horse. As darkness fell, however, he spotted a light shining from the entrance of a cavern.

Inside sat a very old woman, who appeared to be at least a hundred years of age. She struggled to settle her spectacles on her face because her nose was so short.

When she finally looked at the prince, the two stared at one another in astonishment. Then, almost simultaneously, they burst into laughter.

“What a curious nose!” they exclaimed.

“Yours is no less curious than mine,” Hyacinth replied. “But, madam, I beg you to set our noses aside and give me something to eat. I am starving, and my horse is hungry too.”

The old woman was a fairy, and she soon revealed that she had known his father well. In fact, she had loved the late king like a brother.

Despite Hyacinth’s enormous nose, she found him agreeable enough and invited him to stay for supper. She promised to tell him stories about his father while he ate.

Unfortunately, the fairy loved the sound of her own voice. She kept interrupting herself with new explanations, questions, and memories, even as the prince grew increasingly impatient.

At last, Hyacinth protested that he could not listen properly on an empty stomach. He also reminded her that his horse needed feeding, since it could not enjoy the pleasure of her conversation.

The fairy was flattered by his polite manner and ordered her servants to bring food.

As the meal began, Hyacinth noticed a maid who praised her mistress at every opportunity. Whatever the fairy said, the maid found a way to describe it as evidence of extraordinary wisdom.

The prince watched this performance with amusement.

How foolish people are when they believe their own flatterers, he thought. They praise our faults until we mistake them for virtues. I, at least, know myself and cannot be deceived so easily.

But Hyacinth did not realise the irony of his own judgment. He had spent his entire life surrounded by people who praised his nose, and he had accepted their compliments without question.

The fairy, meanwhile, continued talking. When the prince’s nose cast a shadow over her plate, she asked him to move aside. Then she complained about its size again, remarking that she could not grow accustomed to it.

Hyacinth finally lost his patience.

“Madam, I am perfectly satisfied with my nose,” he declared. “I have no wish to shorten it. Please stop speaking about it.”

The fairy claimed that she meant no harm. She even promised to imagine that he had an ordinary nose, although she could not help observing that his would be large enough to make three normal ones.

That was the last straw.

The prince mounted his horse and left in anger.

The Truth He Refused to See

As Hyacinth continued his search for the princess, he encountered people who seemed equally fascinated by his nose. Everywhere he went, someone commented on its size.

He began to suspect that the world had gone mad. Yet he still refused to consider the possibility that everyone else might be right.

For twenty years, he had been told that his nose was magnificent. The belief had become so deeply rooted that even the evidence before his eyes could not dislodge it.

The old fairy, however, had not given up on him. She wanted to help the prince discover the truth for himself, knowing that another lecture would accomplish nothing.

She devised a plan.

Somewhere along Hyacinth’s journey, she placed a magnificent palace made entirely of crystal. Inside it, she confined the Dear Little Princess, ensuring that the prince would eventually discover her.

When Hyacinth came upon the glittering palace and recognised his beloved, his despair gave way to overwhelming joy. At last, he had found her!

He immediately tried to break through the crystal walls. He pushed and struggled with all his strength, but the palace remained intact.

Desperate to reach the princess, he searched for another way inside. The Dear Little Princess stretched out her hand towards him, inviting him to kiss it through the barrier.

Hyacinth leaned forward.

But his nose got in the way.

He tried again, changing his position and angling his face, but he could not bring his lips to her hand. His own nose, which he had always regarded as a source of beauty and pride, had become an obstacle between him and the person he loved.

For the first time in his life, the prince could no longer deny what was plainly before him.

“My nose really is too long!” he admitted.

At that very moment, the crystal palace shattered into a thousand pieces.

The old fairy appeared, leading the Dear Little Princess by the hand. She explained that the prince had needed to recognise his own fault, not merely hear other people describe it.

“What good would it have done for me to keep telling you about your nose?” she asked. “You would never have believed me until it prevented you from doing something you desperately wanted to do.”

She then explained the lesson behind his strange adventure: self-love can blind people to their own imperfections. Reason and honest advice may fail when pride makes someone unwilling to listen. Sometimes, people only recognise their faults when those faults stand directly in the way of what matters most to them.

Hyacinth finally understood.

In that instant, his enormous nose became perfectly ordinary, just like everyone else’s. The enchantment had been broken because he had at last acknowledged the truth.

He married the Dear Little Princess, and the two lived happily ever after.

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Moral

Pride can prevent us from recognising our own faults, especially when people around us continually praise us. Honest self-examination requires the humility to accept truths we may not want to hear.

Knowledge Check

1. What breaks the enchantment that allows Hyacinth’s father to marry the princess?

The king successfully steps on the tail of the princess’s enchanted cat, which transforms into an enchanter.Hide answer

2. Why does Prince Hyacinth believe his unusually long nose is beautiful?

His mother, teachers, and courtiers repeatedly praise long noses and ridicule short ones, shaping his understanding of beauty.Hide answer

3. Who helps Hyacinth discover the truth about himself?

An old fairy who knew his father and devises a plan involving a crystal palace.Hide answer

4. What finally makes Hyacinth admit that his nose is too long?

He cannot kiss the Dear Little Princess’s outstretched hand because his nose gets in the way.Hide answer

5. What is the central lesson of the tale?

Vanity and flattery can conceal personal faults, and people sometimes recognise their shortcomings only when those faults obstruct their aims.

Source

This retelling is adapted from “Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess,” included in The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang and published by Longmans, Green, and Co. in London and New York in 1889, pp. 12–18

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